Swap
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: "Hey, M, do you think we can talk to each other telepathically?" Tao said, spinning in his chair. It doesn't go how either Tao or M-21 expected.


**Summary**: "Hey, M, do you think we can talk to each other telepathically?" Tao said, spinning in his chair.  
It doesn't go how either Tao or M-21 expected.

I didn't have a guesstimate for how long this would be, but I didn't expect it to be _this_ long, pffffft.

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**Swap  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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"Hey, M, do you think we can talk to each other telepathically?" Tao said, spinning in his chair, staring up at the ceiling.

"What."

He stopped, looking at M-21. "Do you think we can talk to each other telepathically?" he repeated.

M-21 frowned at him. "Why do you think we could? Werewolves don't, and I don't think you were enhanced to be either."

Tao held up a finger. "As _far as we know_, werewolves aren't telepathic, but I know I wasn't." He'd checked - he'd been enhanced to process more data faster, but nothing about trying to enhance psychic abilities.

"Right." M-21 sipped his tea and Tao took the hint, drinking the coffee M-21 had brought him.

"Buuut we do have something in common: Raizel-nim awakened both of us."

M-21 just raised an eyebrow at him.

"Think about it!" Tao started spinning in his chair again. "Boss and Raizel-nim can talk telepathically with each other-"

"They're contracted with each other, not-"

Tao waved a hand at him, sticking his tongue out. "Lemme finish, M."

"If you let me finish too," M-21 said, smirking.

"Heh, fair." Tao span in his chair one more time. "Boss and Raizel-nim are contracted, but maaaybe we're all connected because that's what Raizel-nim does?" Was there a big difference between a contract and an awakening?

M-21 didn't say anything for a second, which meant he was properly considering it. "Frankenstein would have said something to us."

"True! But Boss' been contracted with Raizel-nim for centuries, so maybe he's so used to it he didn't notice a change?" What was three more connections when one had been there forever? Tao clapped his hands twice. "Sooo? Wanna try?" He batted his eyes at M-21.

"Sure. I just have to listen while you think at me?" M-21 sipped from his tea again.

"Hey!" Tao batted M-21's arm, seeing him smirk behind his mug. "I'm not doing all the work here - you think at me too."

M-21 huffed, still smirking. "All right. Anything in particular you want to hear?"

"Surprise me," Tao said with a laugh, setting his mug down. With M-21 and his wit, he could think of _anything_. Tao leaned back on his chair and stared at M-21. Boss and Raizel-nim didn't need to look at each other when they were being telepathic, but maybe it would help now. Until they got the hang of it anyway.

Tao didn't focus on what he was thinking, just keeping a running commentary of what was going on. It was the intent that mattered right now, wanting M-21 to hear him. That was what was important. And if it worked -which it would; his ideas always did- then getting messages across to Takeo and M-21 during a fight would be a _breeze_.

[_-sure the puppy's been stealing my-_]

Tao sucked in a breath, his eyes going wide, seeing M-21's doing the same, which meant M-21 was hearing him too!

"It worked!" Tao laughed, punching the air. "Aaah, that's great!" Wait. He should be replying telepathically, right? To practice. And they had to tell Takeo too! He grinned at M-21, patting him on the arm. [_See? That was ea-_]

The world span and when it righted itself, something slipped from Tao's fingers. He didn't grab it (a white mug) in time, reflexes too slow in his confusion -he was standing?- but he flicked his cables out to grab it with well-practiced ease.

The mug crashed on the floor, spilling its hot contents all over his pink slippers.

"Ack ack ack!" he hissed as he hopped on his toes. Sure, he could take broken bones with gritted teeth, but that was because he'd braced for the impact. Hot tea when he wasn't expecting it was something else altogether. Why hadn't his cables worked?

"The _fuck_?"

Tao looked towards the voice, and his eyes went wide, his jaw dropping.

It was himself. Sitting in his chair. Staring back at him.

Which meant... Tao lifted his hands and turned them so his palms were facing the ceiling.

Right there on his left wrist, in stark black ink, was a partial diamond tattoo with '21' in the middle of it.

Oh. _That's_ why his cables hadn't appeared when he'd wanted them to.

Because M-21 had been standing next to him, drinking when..._this_ had happened.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!"

M-21-in-him snorted. "No shit."

Tao blinked at him, and then scrunched up his face. "Is that what my voice sounds like?" He knew his actual voice was different from what he heard, but it was so weird hearing it. Especially from someone else's ears.

"Apparently," M-21-in-him said, shrugging. "I'm not trying to change it."

"Hnn." Tao sucked in a breath and then leaned back on his desk, bracing his hands next to him. "M, you feel _terrible._" Was this how M-21 felt all the time? Empty, with barely enough energy to hold himself upright? Had he told Boss?

"_Thanks_," M-21 said, his voice dry, tapping a finger on the armrest.

Oh, right. He should have realised M-21 would have taken that negatively. But it was so hard to _think_, everything slower than Tao expected, or just not _there_ when he tried to make the thought.

"I mean, you're exhausted - how much did you sleep last night?" All those times M-21 had chased him away from work to go to sleep, and he wasn't sleeping himself? That was a little unfair.

"Normal hours," M-21 said, shrugging. "And I'm not exhausted - you just have too much energy." He glanced at his hand, which was still tapping on the armrest. He stopped moving it and then sighed as he started flexing his hand. "No wonder you never stop fidgeting."

"I can keep still." Like he was just now, because it felt like it was too much effort to stand. "And sure you sleep, but is it _restful_?" There was a difference.

M-21 rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah."

But if M-21 was used to this, then he _would_ think it's restful.

M-21 frowned, shaking out his hand. "Why are your hands tingling?" He blinked and then started staring at different parts of the wall. "You can hear electricity?"

"Yeah - how do you think I know where to draw energy from?" He couldn't do that if he didn't know where the source was. ...Wait. M-21's fingers were tingling? "Uh, like you said, I've got more energy than you - you don't need to draw it from the walls."

M-21 frowned at him, rubbing his fingertips. "I'm not-"

The monitor and lights flickered.

"...Shit," M-21 breathed, his eyes going wide. "How do I stop doing this?"

"By not trying to pull energy." Which was essentially a non-answer, but the words weren't coming like he wanted, and he _knew_ how to control his abilities that it was instinct, rather than conscious. Okay, okay, better answer. A better answer would be _really_ nice to come now!

"Think of something else." Finally! "Don't focus on the electricity." Tao grabbed M-21's shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. "Focus on your shoulder and think non-electricity thoughts."

"A little hard when the entire room is buzzing," M-21 muttered through clenched teeth.

Tao heard the crackle as he saw arcs of light zipping across M-21's skin, his palm warming and tingling where it was touching M-21.

"You can tune me out pretty easily when you want to," Tao said with a grin. "Just do that."

"If I ignored you completely, I wouldn't have a warning about what you were going to do." But M-21 exhaled, squeezing his eyes shut.

Tao squeezed his shoulder again, making sure M-21 could feel the pressure.

All at once the monitor and lights stabilised, the arcs of light disappearing from M-21's skin.

"Beeetter?" Tao said, peering at him.

"As much as I can be," M-21 grumbled, opening his eyes.

Tao turned his head at the sound of two notifications, pulling out M-21's phone, while M-21 did the same.

[Master would like to see you and Tao in the main lab.]

"Ah," Tao said with a sheepish laugh. "Guess he noticed."

M-21 snorted, standing up. "Of course he did."

[will b there soon~! (^-^)b] Tao sent back.

Tao took a step and then grimaced when his slipper squished. Right. The tea. They'd been a little distracted since he'd spilled it. "We'll need to clean this up first." He flicked his foot, trying to get rid of the excess as he opened the desk drawer for the tissues.

"Why do you have slippers in there?" M-21 said, peering into it.

"Well," Tao said, dropping the tissues onto the puddle, "in case you transformed into a werewolf and went to go find me."

M-21 stared at him and Tao continued.

"Then when you transformed back, you'd have slippers to get back into the house." It made perfect sense.

"I think a spare change of cl... Oh. You have some in there as well."

"Yep!" Of course he'd thought of everything, because he was just awesome at planning and preparation. "No transformation this time-"

"_If_ I ever fully transform."

"-but I can use them for this instead." So it worked out.

They were finished in a minute and Tao hummed as they left his security room. He and M-21 were the same height so walking wasn't any different from what Tao was used to at least, though it still felt he was trying to carry twice as much weight as usual.

"Does Boss know?" Tao asked. "About this tiredness." Sure, their bodies were different and they were enhanced in different ways, but this felt like M-21 had just woken up still groggy. Tao only knew his own body, but he was pretty sure that wasn't normal.

"Yeah," M-21 said with a shrug as he squinted at the lights. "He's working on it."

That was good to know, and that M-21 hadn't tried to self-deprecate either. Though how hadn't he seen any hint of that when he'd poked around his, Takeo and M-21's data?

When the lights started to brighten, Tao elbowed M-21.

M-21 grunted, but looked away. The lights went back to normal. Well, that was a way to distract him.

Tao perked up and grinned when he saw Takeo holding a steaming mug at the other end of the corridor. Who was staring, looking between them.

"...What did you two do?" Takeo said, still studying them.

"What makes you think we-"

"What do you _think_ we did," M-21 interrupted with a roll his eyes.

Tao elbowed M-21 again. He was going to ruin the surprise!

"I would guess you somehow swapped brains?"

Tao gasped. "How could you _tell_?" Was it that obvious?

Takeo looked at him, a small smile on his lips. "That. And you were reaching for the coffee."

...Oh, right. M-21 would never do that. Tao looked at M-21 and saw he'd jammed his hands into his pockets, his shoulders hunched. And he would never do that either.

"Yeeeah," Tao said with a laugh, rubbing the back of his head - _oh_ the hair was longer than he expected. "We were seeing if we could talk telepathically and then...ended up like this? We're gonna see Raizel-nim and - what?" Takeo was wincing.

"It's strange seeing M-21 acting like you. It's like I'm dreaming."

"Well, you're not. And neither are we." Tao slung an arm around Takeo's shoulder, maaaybe leaning on him a little more than usual. "Gimmie," Tao said, reaching for the coffee in Takeo's hand again.

Takeo pulled it away from Tao's reach. Nooo. "Shouldn't it be for M-21 instead if your body's been working for the past couple of hours?"

M-21 grimaced, and wow, that really did look weird. "I don't need _more_ energy. How did you need all that coffee when you felt like this all the time?"

"Because that's what I feel like when I'm flagging - I'm surprised you don't drink more coffee when you feel like this." Tao reached for the mug again, and after Takeo glanced at M-21, who nodded, Takeo gave it to him.

The smell was stronger in M-21's body, and Tao breathed it in before he took a gulp.

And almost spat it out again. "Whaaa?" he spluttered, coughing. It was so bitter it tasted like the entire drink was filled with coffee beans with no sugar or milk; Takeo knew how he liked his coffee and he'd _seen_ it was pale before he'd drank.

"That's why: it tastes like shit to me."

Tao _knew_ M-21 was smirking at him. "Uuurgh." But he wanted coffeeee. "This sucks." Eeenergggy. He wanted it.

There was no way he could finish it though.

"We're going to see Raizel-nim if you wanna come?" Tao said, staring mournfully at the coffee. He could savour the smell, but that wasn't the same.

"Of course," Takeo said as they started walking.

Raizel-nim was already there when they arrived, sitting in a chair and sipping tea while Boss puttered around one of the machines near him.

Boss turned to them when they neared, and then frowned, studying him and M-21.

"How _did_ you manage that?" he murmured, an eyebrow raised.

"That's a funny story, heh..." And okay, Boss could see _everything_, but it would have been cool if Boss had taken longer to figure it out.

"When I received your text," Boss said with a sigh, pushing his glasses further up his nose, "I had assumed you had stolen M-21's phone again, not that you were the one using it."

Huh? He hadn't - well, yeah, he'd sent a text to Boss but... He'd replied on M-21's phone, not his own. Oh, right.

"How are you two faring?" Boss said.

M-21 grunted. "I can't _think_."

Tao stared at him. M-21 was glowering at the machine behind Boss, his teeth gritted. "What?" That made no sense. At _all_. "But I was enhanced to think about everything!"

"_Exactly_," M-21 hissed. "My thoughts keep bouncing around so much I can't concentrate on _anything_."

That was the point - he could multitask and think about all new things at once, but then... Tao breathed out, tracking how he'd been thinking since he'd been in M-21's body. It had been linear, thoughts sometimes dying before he could even finish them. Which was a lot slower than he was used to.

"I've had three different thoughts since saying that!" M-21 continued. "No wonder you keep coming up with new plans."

"That's what I was made to do, heh."

"And you?" Boss said, turning to Tao.

"Tired," Tao said with a shrug. Anything else, M-21 would take as an insult. His brain was refusing to give him much more anyway.

"Sooo," Tao said, and he _wanted_ to rock back and forth on his heels like he was used to, but he didn't want to _move_ more than he had to as well. "What did we do-" So they wouldn't do it again. "-and how do we undo it?"

Raizel-nim sipped his tea. "Talking mind to mind is similar to talking to someone on the mobile phone: the connection is already there and you merely need to speak for the other to hear you." He paused, taking another sip.

It was that easy? But it had still taken a while before he'd heard M-21, or was that a 'bad signal' where it wasn't clear?

Tao heard Boss sigh, and whoops, Boss must have figured out what they'd done.

He blinked at feeling of grumpiness that swept through him, a retort on his tongue. Tao poked at the feeling, not sure where it had come from. There hadn't been a comment, but the sigh had just _annoyed_ him, Tao expecting something to follow after it.

"Throwing your full efforts into talking with each other meant you had dislodged the anchors your soul had with your body," Raizel-nim continued.

"We-" M-21 stopped, frowning before he sighed, shaking his head. "We can do that?"

Raizel-nim nodded. "When I awakened you, your souls were parting with your bodies-"

Eugh. He and Takeo had been that close to dying back then? Everything had been on fire, and Tao had _hoped_ the numbness was from starting to lose consciousness, not from dying.

"-and their connection with your body is looser than it normally would be." Raizel-nim frowned, his gaze going distant. "I am unable to strengthen those bonds."

Tao waved his hands. "That's fine! You'd already saved our lives!" Who knew how much energy it would take Raizel-nim to 'fix' them, and _none_ of them wanted to find out.

Time to change topic before Raizel-nim decided to try anyway. "So we overdid it with trying to talk to each other?"

Raizel-nim nodded. "The physical touch while you were talking also helped the transfer."

Touch? They hadn't - "The _pat_ did it?" Right, that was when everything had changed, wasn't it. No wonder Boss and Raizel-nim weren't constantly switching bodies - Tao was sure he'd only seen them touch a handful of times since he'd been accepted into the household.

"Yes."

M-21 didn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation, staring at the ceiling lights. "M?" Should he nudge him again? The lights weren't flickering, but that might be a 'yet' situation.

"We just need to touch each other while trying to talk again, right?" M-21 jerked back in surprise, frowning. "How the fuck did I know what you were saying? I've been trying to ignore the electricity the entire time."

"Multitasking, M," Tao reminded him, breathing a soft laugh. Maybe he should nudge M-21 every minute to distract him, but maybe he wouldn't need to if they could get everything sorted out right now. "Let's do it now!" Tao said, collecting M-21's hands in his.

"Yeah," M-21 said, still frowning. "I prefer how my own body works."

"Heh, same." Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, what to think. It didn't matter, but Tao had a yawning space that was refusing to be filled when he wanted it.

Thoughts still wouldn't come, so Tao opted for describing everything around them.

[-_swear if my thoughts fucking jump again_-]

There it was! [_Hey, M!_] Tao grinned, even as the world span.

Tao sucked in a deep breath, feeling the familiar buzz of electricity around him, the sense of security that gave him to know it was available.

"Ow." Tao worked his jaw, trying to relax stiff muscles. _Everything_ was stiff, and Tao rolled his shoulders. M-21 _really_ hadn't liked being in his body, huh? Or maybe M-21 was always holding himself like that but Tao was sure he would have noticed if M-21 was.

"You in there, M?" Tao said, peering at him. M-21 had a bit of a glassy look to him, not focusing on anything. It had worked, right? It couldn't be _both_ of them were in his body - Raizel-nim would have said something by now. And it seemed like he was alone in his body and his thoughts.

"I'm just revelling in having a quiet mind again," M-21 said, a small smile curling the corners of his lips.

"Good." Tao stretched, sighing with happiness as everything moved like he expected. What was the time? It had been less than thirty minutes since everything started - it wasn't _late_ (not by Tao's standards), but it was still a bedtime for some. "Let's get you to bed," Tao said, tugging M-21 towards the door.

"I'm not tired," M-21 insisted, walking with him anyway, Takeo following. "You just have enough energy for five people."

"I need to, to be able do what I do. Thanks Raizel-nim!" Tao said, throwing a wave behind them. "We'll try an' be more careful next time!" Whenever that was. Probably soon, but not tonight. He needed to pick Raizel-nim's brain a bit more to figure out properly what they were supposed to do. Or maybe practice with Raizel-nim? Then that way no-one should end up being displaced. ...What would it feel like, being in Raizel-nim's body?

"One plan at a time," Takeo said, amusement in his voice.

Tao squinted at him. "Were you listening in on my thoughts?" They'd only tried sending, and not listening, but then how else would Takeo know what he was thinking?

"We don't need to," M-21 said with a snort. "We know you." He grimaced. "And now I know how you keep coming up with them."

"Because they're _good_ ideas. And needed!"

"Not all of them."

"Says you." Tao shook a hand, a few sparks flying off. He did feel a little bouncier than before they'd swapped, and that must have been from when M-21 had been sucking up energy. Though that could just be the difference between their own energy levels.

"...Sorr-"

"Nope!" Tao said, clapping a hand over M-21's mouth. "Gathering up energy was something I was modified to do, and all it did was perk me up. Not hurt me. I don't think it was enough to make a blip the electricity bill either." Not with how much all of Boss' machines used in comparison.

M-21 narrowed his eyes at him over his hand. Tao kissed his cheek and let go. "No-one got hurt and there's nothing to apologise for."

M-21 didn't say anything for a second, and then nodded slowly, letting out a long exhale. "All right..."

Tao beamed at him, throwing an arm around M-21 and Takeo to draw them into a hug. Progress! Maybe being in his body had helped M-21. He could ask for details, but that was for later.

Right now, the main goal was to get M-21 to bed and have as _much_ rest as possible.

And then he could start thinking of all the different ways they could use their telepathy in a fight. 

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Written for Shiary's prompt, 'body swap'.


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